What is it like inside the McLaren Automotive design studio? 
Frank Stephenson It’s like working in an art studio, with science too, because my team and I are creating beautiful cars that also have to work. McLaren is very serious about engineering, so our designs have to reflect performance. We build cars based on intelligent design inspirations and work the oldschool way—with pen and paper instead of computers, to give the cars a human touch. 

What is the thought process behind a McLaren car design? 
FS Our approach is to come up with something that’s better than what it currently is; to not just redress our cars, but to improve everything about them. A great source of inspiration is nature. Animals, for instance, weren’t made to be beautiful but to survive and thus, their aesthetics are the result of their purpose. The falcon can fly at a speed of over 320km/h because it adapts its form to the situation, boosting efficiency. We apply this same formula to our car designs. Once we understand what the car has to do, the performance it has to have, the ergonomic features it needs, you’ll see that its form takes place almost by itself. 

Any exciting design ideas in the works? 
FS We are working on a car that’s able to change colours whenever its driver feels like it, like a chameleon. We’re developing a material that emits a luminescent light through the car’s surface to give it the desired colour, and it can also change with the time of the day. However, we’re still working on getting this approved by each market’s legislature. Another idea we’re considering is removing our windscreen wipers. I once went to a military base in England to look at their combat aircrafts, and realised they didn’t have wipers. Instead, an electric charge passes through their windscreens and creates a highfrequency vibration that makes it impossible for anything to stick to it.

Did you grow up around cars?
FS No, I didn’t. I grew up in Casablanca, Morocco around donkeys, horses and dogs, but I did like to draw. I drew animals, people, landscapes, and later cars because my father owned a second-hand car dealership in Spain where I would work during my summer breaks, painting cars that had been crashed by their owners to make them look different. But I didn’t think I could make a career out of drawing cars. It was only when I came across an article about a car design course at my alma mater in California that I decided to pursue this profession.

How do you define good design?
FS Design isn’t subjective—taste is. Designers like myself dedicate our lives to studying how to make our designs good. If you have to explain a design—why someone should buy this car or why it looks nice—then the design is wrong or bad because it’s either you like it or you don’t. No one should have to convince you. That’s the measure of a car’s success.